Core PHP Programming has proved itself an invaluable technical
reference. I highly recommend it for beginners as well, since the
official PHP manual often assumes too much knowledge on behalf of
the user. Leon's strength is that he does not try to sound more
technical than needed, simply for the sake of impressing other
programmers. In short, a must-have for any PHP user, beginning or
advanced!
—Zack Beatty, Enterprise Web Engineer

Core PHP Programming, Second Edition is the #1 practical
guide to PHP 4 for Web developers. With the guidance of top PHP
developer Leon Atkinson, you'll learn everything you'll need to
build robust, fast Web applications — and deploy them on
leading Web servers, from Apache to Microsoft Internet Information
Server.

Atkinson covers PHP syntax, the key building blocks of PHP
scripts, and every PHP function, including I/O, data, and math
functions, time, date, configuration, database, graphics, and
network functions. He presents PHP at work in sample code that
demonstrates sorting, searching, parsing, string evaluation, and
more. You'll even find detailed, real-world insights into PHP 4
program design and debugging!

Core PHP Programming delivers

Thorough, easy-to-understand coverage of PHP syntax and
functions

Step-by-step guidance for PHP database integration

Design and optimization techniques for maximum performance and
extensibility

Practical debugging solutions

CD-ROM includes PHP 4 source code and Windows binaries plus all
the code examples from the book!